TECH FOCUS – OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES IN MEDICAL ELECTRONICS
Embedded systems developers have seen many of their traditional markets shrink drastically during the current economic downturn – consumer, industrial, automotive and even mil/aero have been hit hard. The one bright spot, however, has been medical electronics, with many developers convinced that there is asure path to money in medical systems design.
Layering it on–a new approach to automating system tests This article presents the pitfalls and challenges posed by an automation test solution for an embedded system, namely a Voice over IP media gateway. The layered testing architecture it proposes does not always reduce testing effort but converts tasks such as execution, validation, monitoring, and reporting into software routines.
 DESIGN ARTICLES
Taking advantage of opportunities and challenges in medical electronics With the need for better medical care and access to medical diagnosis and treatment increasing, challenges facing developers of medical devices include portability and miniaturization, connectivity, safety, data security and quality, and reliability.
Pushing the limits of AC/DC power system design to meet needs of medical apps While it is clear that reductions in size and improvements in efficiency are constant pressures in the design of AC/DC power supplies, the medical device market has some particular requirements that make the challenge greater still. This article considers these challenges and looks at how recent AC/DC switching power supplies are being designed to meet them.
Adopting An SOC-based Approach to Designing Handheld Medical Devices The rapid growth of the medical devices industry has seen a comparable increase in demand for handheld medical devices, from personal defibulators to continuous glucose monitors. Designing such devices can be a daunting task.
A low power, high stability relaxation oscillator for implantable biomedical apps The designers of a self-clocked offset cancellation technique for comparators within a relaxation oscillator share their findings and explain why the resulting improvements in frequency drift and close-in phase fluctuations are relevant to industrial, scientific or medical applications.
Energy harvested for wearable health monitor Authors detail energy scavenging and power management techniques which make the wearable healt monitoring system fully autonomous and operate without battery.
Buy or Build an RTOS: Does it Matter for Medical Devices? The development of an electronic medical device requires the consideration of a range of issues: reliability, certification, cost and time to market. Reuse of available proven technology is just common sense, and a commercial RTOS is a good place to start.
CompactPCI Proves Its Mettle in Medical Design How Kontron worked with Techniscan to boost the performance of its Ultrasound CT Breast Imaging System to boost the computing power of the system's scanning capabilities by incorporating a CompactPCI CP6012 single board computer using a single 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
Applying Static Analysis To Medical Device Software David Kleidermacher describes in more detail how static analysis tools can be used to improve the software reliability and safety of many medical devices and systems.
Using static analysis to evaluate software in medical devices Researchers at the FDA's Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories investigating new techniques for analyzing software in medical devices are using static analysis tools to uncover potential flaws in a device under review.
 NEWS FEATURES/COMMENTARY
Massive shifts in medical technology ahead, study says Over the decade ahead, the western industrial countries will significantly lose out against Asia when it comes to innovation power in the medical technologies, a study from German industry association VDE says.
The path to money in medical systems design Between government stimulus packages, an aging population, exploding healthcare costs and increasing need for better remote diagnostics, it's understandable that engineers looking for the next big opportunity would look up and cry: “Thars gold in them thar [medical] hills.” But not so fast.
MEMS sensors: good medicine Microelectromechanical-system-based inertial and motion sensors are finding slots in medical applications, with demand fueled by implantable devices that must be highly reliable and very small, as well as by handheld devices for home monitoring and diagnostics.
 UNDER THE HOOD: Teardowns
Blood glucose meters–medical labs in the palm of your handby The number of people who suffer from diabetes is growing. The CDC (Centers or Disease Control and Prevention) states that 23.6 million Americans had diabetes in 2007, with more cases every year.
Medical Design: Under my skin Understanding the design challenges involved with implantable antennas is helping to advance the development of wireless medical devices.
 EDITOR'S NOTE by Bernard Cole, Embedded.com Editor
ESC Silicon Valley is increasingly the place to get hands-on training. In the past, we told you how to develop your system, then you went back to your lab to make it work. Now, we're bringing that lab to you, giving you the hardware and software you need to design, develop, and debug your system. Find out more here. Note: Early-bird registration expires February 19th.
Finally, as the deployments of 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks accelerate, engineers have their hands full developing and testing handsets to meet the extreme performance requirements these networks demand. Our online course, the Fundamentals of LTE Physical Layer and Test Requirements will take you through the LTE standard and show you how to set up to test user equipment using the latest test systems and techniques
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